Posts Tagged ‘Greece’

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The two Bohemia Interactive developers arrested on accusations of spying in Greece have, it’s been announced today, been released on bail. And even better, are free to return to the Czech Republic. This has come about, remarkably, after the involvement of Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, directly in communication with the Czech PM, Petr Nečas.

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Things haven’t exactly been going well for jailed ArmA III developers Ivan Buchta and Martin Pezlar, but if nothing else, they’re not without support. Bohemia Interactive and the Czech Embassy have been in their corner for the more-than-70-day duration – though unfortunately, they haven’t been able to make any significant headway. Most recently, the pair was unable to post bail, and now a trial seems almost completely unavoidable. And so, with things seemingly stuck in a nosedive that never ends, the president of the Czech Republic has decided to step in.

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Things have to get worse before they can get better. It would seem, however, that the universal rules of life forget to apply that second part to the case of ArmA III developers Ivan Buchta and Martin Pezlar. They’ve now been imprisoned in Greece for nearly 70 days, and their recent attempt to post bail was completely unsuccessful. So then, what’s next? At this point, it’s looking like a trial is inevitable. And in the event that the Greek legal system treats Buchta and Pezlar as well as the Greek prison system, they could be facing up to 20 years of jail time.

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Update: RPS has received a brief status update from the Czech Embassy in Greece. Here it is: “On behalf of the Embassy of the Czech Republic, we can confirm that we are closely following the case. The detainees have their defence lawyer. To avoid any further misunderstanding, the Embassy prefers not to publish any statements at the given moment.” We’re still waiting to hear back from other sources, but we’ll let you know as soon as we do.

Original: Laws. They are – in spite of pocket change lawyer fees and the fact that all law books clock in at well under seven billion pages and consist mainly of pictures – really, really complicated. For instance, in the state of Pennsylvania, doing that cartoon thing where you tie a dollar to a string and pull it away when someone tries to pick it up is actually illegal. And, more pertinently, you absolutely cannot take pictures of Greek-military-related objects. That, apparently, constitutes espionage. In 2001, British plane-spotters discovered Greece was a no-fly zone for that kind of thing, and now two ArmA III devs are learning a similar lesson the hard way.